Varieties of Trees for the Painter
A red-chalk checklist of tree forms and colours: low, tall, sparse, dark, light, yellow, red
In faint red chalk, written upside down relative to the notebook, Leonardo lists the varieties of trees a painter must distinguish: low and tall, sparse and dense of leaf, dark, light, yellow and red, some branching upward and standing straight to the eye, others drooping, with white trunks. The note is an observational checklist rather than continuous prose, cataloguing how differently trees present themselves. No finished drawing accompanies it; the page is otherwise blank.
On this page
A checklist of tree characters
The note enumerates contrasting properties of trees: low versus tall, sparse versus thick of foliage, dark versus light, yellow versus red, those branching upward versus those hanging down, and those with white trunks. It reads as a naturalist's memorandum of the variety among trees.
How trees present themselves to the eye
Several entries are framed by how the tree meets the viewer's eye: some stand upright to the eye, some fall away, some seem to tear at the air and others not. The list serves as a painter's guide to observing and rendering the diversity of trees.